The Timing of the Campaign

In the fall of 2013, after months of product label redesign, an updated logo, and a new tag line and manifesto courtesy of our agency, Genuine Health launched their bold new look and complete rebranding, Genuine Health Is Possible. Sports Nutrition is one of their product lines and, in the spring of 2014, we rejuvenated that product line with the It Matters campaign.

The Challenge

Genuine Health, the makers of the market-leading superfood greens+, was a late entrant in the natural sports nutrition market segment. Despite their leadership in the superfood category, their initial foray into the sports nutrition market received a cool reception by both retailers and consumers.

The Insight & Strategy

We understood immediately that in order for the client to succeed, they needed a blue ocean strategy. They could not be a "me too" company as there were so many entrenched players in the market already.

Using our agency's proprietary AHAATM (Active, Healthy, Affluent, Aware) consumer panel, we recruited users of supplementary sports nutrition, as well as non-users, who live active lifestyles. We conducted an online survey to understand how they chose their products and also to understand why some of these consumers do not use sports nutrition despite leading very active lives. We learned that the vast majority of users cared primarily for performance and were less concerned about natural ingredients or the "healthiness" of the product. On the other hand, the non-users were very concerned about the health impact of the products they have been exposed to and this posed a major barrier.

The Execution

We developed an entirely new brand essence: when it matters. The in-market strategy is the upfront "It Matters." We developed a narrative to explain to the consumer the meaning and feeling of not only when It Matters, but how It Matters, why It Matters and to whom It Matters — our target consumers. We took the terminology for each product segment — Prepare, Perform, Rebuild — and enhanced it, adding Naturally. We developed new logos, new packaging and a new website (in partnership with the client's existing vendor). Our creative team produced a set of It Matters videos for use on the new website featuring natural vitality seekers and performance athletes who use the Genuine Health Sports Nutrition products. The It Matters strategy was leveraged in pop-up shops and in-store collateral featuring the new packaging and rich media was developed for use on the website, social media and broadcast to tell this unique new story. We created the channel strategy and the materials to reach a new consumer and open up the market for our client.

The Result

The new brand essence, packaging and messaging opened up significant retail partnerships for Genuine Health: at one major category retailer alone, April and May sales for the proteins+ category skyrocketed 492% over last year! At the same time, the vegan proteins+ category experienced a 263% lift.

The It Matters campaign sparked new excitement for the Genuine Health Sports Nutrition brand and products among consumers, driving web traffic with 48% of total US visitors and 31% of Canadian visitors entering Genuine Health's website through www.it-matters.com. In fact, average page views of www.it-matters.com grew 20% during the weeks of the website's launch.

Perhaps the most exciting early result of the It Matters campaign is that for the first time in company history, Genuine Health ran out of Sports Nutrition products in-store POP due to strong retailer uptake and interest!

As of summer 2014, based on recent commitments from new retail channels, sales for the sports nutrition category are projected to double over 2013.